New Beer Sunday (week 607)

In lieu of paying attention to this shit show of a game, I decided to crack open another beer from @ovaltine

I agree with you @jhartley. It is super stanky. Call it cat piss, onion, BO, whatever. It is pungent.


4.39/5 rDev -2.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Poured from a 22 oz bottle with no date into a tulip glass.

It is a deep, orange gold with a sticky off-white head that clings to the side of the glass as it settles. Mostly clear.

A bunch of pungent tropical fruit, pine, and a little onion and body odor. I would describe it as mostly peach/apricot, mango, orange, and sweat. Everything is so strong that I am not noticing any of the malts.

Flavors of zesty orange, mango, peach, and pine. A solid, smooth building bitterness. Finishes a little pithy.

Body is crisp/sparkly/sharp and on the lighter side for an imperial. Feels more like an IPA.

Great beer. One of the more stinky ones I have had in awhile.

 

But what did you think about it?

 

Hi folks. You can read my reactions to this beer here.

Happy New Beer Sunday everyone.

 

You've been on one helluva trip for the last year haven't you?! Man ain't you guys tired of travelling yet?

 

I planned on plowing through the hoppy brews from @strohme2 , but its cold and rainy here, and I saw this Toasted Marshmallow brew staring at me and I couldn't resisit.


Pours a deep opaque brown with a thin foamy tan head. The head breaks down into a thin ring around the glass with a few floating islands.
Aroma is full of bitter chocolate and roasted malts with a noticeable sweetness.
Similar flavor, big chocolaty blast up front, bitter malts, toasted and roasty backing all melding into a flavor that is reminiscent of toasted marshmallows. Sweetness is bold, but not cloying or overpowering.
Smooth, creamy mouth feel. Coats the tongue a bit, moderate carbonation that suits the smoothness of the brew.
Overall a tasty brew, feels like dessert but with enough bitterness to keep you wanting to sip more.

 

Well, NBSers, it has been a while...
Here's one from those guys down in Brattleboro, VT. I haven't liked too many of their offerings until lately, with their Stickney Kriek, which was an eyeopener. This is their Brattleberry, a barrel aged sour ale with local apples and raspberries.




Vigorous pour from a 16 oz. can yields a 1/2 inch head which is gone in seconds, becoming a thin ring. Red-orange in appearance. Nose of whole fruit raspberry jam. Taste of unripened raspberries. Sour, sour, sour with a sour finish. Thin, but not too thin for the style. Overall, I would recommend this!

4.06/5 rDev -0.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

 

The Browns continue to suck but at least Cleveland's got our other great Bs... baseball, basketball and best of all beer!

This is unique but I like it, as is the case with almost everything Platform is putting out. This project is the first of four featuring complements to the jocote fruit. I love how Platform lists every hop, malt, yeast and adjunct that goes into their beers on their cans. As BB1313 pinpointed, it's quite strawberry-like. Add to that lime and to a lesser extent the hops and malts you'd expect from a pale ale and this makes a different but tasty twist on that style. Fruity, complex, good overall. It's nice tasting a new fruit I haven't had before and like the Cherimoya project I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.
Cheers!

 

You're one to talk...My liver still cowers at the mention of your name.

 

I LOL'd when I read "stanky." That is entirely accurate, as is "pungent."

 

More beer brought to you by @richj1970! Enjoying my first Mississippi tick with Southern Prohibition Mississippi Fire Ant.

3.93/5 rDev +1.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Thank you richj1970 for this
16 oz can poured into a tulip

A- A murky reddish brown with a two finger off white head.

S- Fairly malty, getting caramel malts, some toasted malts, bready, decent amount of piney hops with some citrus.

T- More balanced than the nose, some citrus up front, caramel malts, some toasted/roasted malts, bitter piney/resiny finish.

M- Smooth, medium body.

O- A decent red ale that I'm happy to drink. Alcohol is well hidden, not the most hop forward imperial red ale I've had, but does have a nice balance between hops and malts.

The malts remind me a lot of Mispillion Holy Crap, just missing the hoppiness in comparison.

 

I couldn't agree more. Harump!

 

Alright, up next is the 1st anniversary beer by a brewery located about 10 minutes from me in my very own city of Lowell, MA! This brewery has actually had some pretty impressive offerings since their opening in mid 2015 (a rye double IPA and traditional altbier have been highlights for me so far), and so when I saw this 750 mL bottle in my local Craft Beer Cellar today I just felt inspired to pick it up. Having taken it home with no real thought about the "sweet potato" on the label, I was then struck with the "AH-ha!" mentioned in my previous post in this thread. Guess we'll see if that ingredient comes out in this 10% bourbon-barrel aged porter.

Enter Merrimack Ales' Feed The Beast imperial BBA porter w/ sweet potato!



Pours a deep, dark black with a thin ring of unassuming khaki-colored foam. No lace but the head does retain solidly. Originally, when this poured I was thinking there wouldn't be any head formation as it seemed like there was little activity at all in terms of carbonation, but I eventually coaxed what you see here out of my glass by sipping it slightly and hard-pouring several ounces, swirling my glass to re-rouse the thin head in between each small addition. This took some work to get a good pour out of, in other words, but it ended up looking pretty solid in my opinion.

Nose is chocolate, bourbon, tannins, vanilla, sweet potato and a semi-savory like character that I can't quite place. Reminds me of some barleywines I've had that eventually take on an "umami" note after aging or what-have-you. I'm actually impressed that the sweet potato elements come out in this one. The previous beer I had today did not impress on that front, but luckily this seems to be a bit straighter about their addition along with the heavy requisite BBA elements.

Flavor is generally very strongly tannic and oaky with some sweet bourbon, cocoa, estery alcohol and some ephemeral citrus/floral tones that seem to have something to do with the barrel aging. This is certainly an oak-forward beer with some heady liquor qualities, but the base beer actually does puncture through here and there. I really like the unabashed dedication to charred malts here. Not pulling many punches in that realm. The starchy quality of the sweet potatoes makes a small appearance towards the transition to the finish, which ends with a syrupy chocolate note right before a desiccating hit of unadulterated woody tannins closes out each sip. My main issue with this is a strong fusel alcohol component towards the middle of the palate. Feels a bit out of place in a 10% beer, as this drinks at least a couple percent higher.

Feel is oily and slick with a low-ish, unobtrusive carbonation and medium-heavy body. Chewy dark maltiness and a satisfactory roast profile help bring this beer to fruition, and the sweet potato/yam character adds some texture and interest towards the otherwise-thin leaning mid-palate. The barrel aging is certainly not wimpy by any means and definitely fits the "anniversary" qualification here as well. Though this was expensive ($16 for a 750 bottle with no cork), it seems enjoyable enough to drink and consider. I'll be continuing to watch Merrimack Ales for sure!

What better music to pair with a beer called "Feed The Beast" than an album by Portugese black metal horde Morte Incandescente? Raw-leaning 2nd wave black metal worship with some groove stuck in here and there, kind of reminding me of a tribute to Darkthrone that congeals all of the elements, good and goofy alike, of their earlier albums; from classics like A Blaze in the Northern Sky through to Ravishing Grimness.



Cheers again! I'll be back with my final installment soon enough!

 

Maybe the funniest film ever made! One of my all-time favorites.

 

Gone!!! FedEx took to to the back porch.

 

Yeah, I feel like a piker! I'll have to get into this next time. Is that next September?

 

Get back to work. And don't choke on those tiny umbrellas!!!

 

I still haven't drank the one I bought for myself when I bought @jhartley's. I'll chime in when I do.

 

Not yet - we gotta go while we are still (kinda) young!

 

Me too. But he made so many. Back in college I watched it many, many times. Sometimes with a bit of Roman Red!!!

 

Ok the power is finally on thank goodness but that also means work tomorrow. The next brew up is another great beer Space Juice by Long Trail Brewing that was sent to me by the very kind @jhavs.

Appearance 4.25 - Pours clear deep yellow with thick white head that leaves alot of spotty lacing around the glass.

Smell 4 - Very nice citrus smell, passion fruit and mango mostly with a little bit of pineapple. I am getting a hint of hops in the nose but not much.

Taste 4 - Very mild hop flavor, mostly grapefruit and pine resin. A little more hops in the taste than in the smell but still very well balanced with the citrus flavors. It is surprisingly not very bitter and the alcohol is well hidden.

Feel 4 - Medium body very smooth just a hint of dryness on the finish.

Overall 4.04 - This is a great beer, I like how well blended the citrus and hops are. The finish is very smooth.